After receiving word that there was a fire nearby, a group of students who had just graduated from Port Jefferson High School on Long Island, New York, moved from stepping across the stage to receive their degrees to extinguishing the blaze.
Eric Haruthunian, the school’s administrator, named the six courageous kids as Kasumi Layne-Stasik, Shane Hartig, Ryan Parmegiani, Andrew Patterson, and Peter Rizzo, respectively. Hunter Volpi was also included in this group.
Shortly after the ceremony, the grads, who are also volunteers with the Port Jefferson Fire Department, were busy snapping photographs with their families and friends when the fire siren went off three times.
Then, the notifications started ringing and buzzing on their mobile devices.
The students stopped what they were doing as soon as they realized it wasn’t simply a normal check, and they hurried to the firehouse that was a few streets away while still dressed in their graduation gear.
Rizzo, who is just 17 years old, related the following story to Good Morning America: “We were still in our gowns, and we still had our degrees with us, and we peeled off our robes.” “I was completely unaware that I was still wearing my tie,” the speaker said.
To react to a structure fire incident at one of their classmates’ houses, two of the students rode in the first engine to arrive at the site, while the other four students rode on a ladder truck.
According to the head of the Port Jefferson fire department, Christian Neubert, the student was also just getting back home after the ceremony.
At the crime site, Rizzo took control of a nozzle, which was an important role because he was the first person inside the garage. Others assisted in tearing down walls and ceilings in order to search for hidden areas inside the structure where the fire may have been still burning or may have started again.
Patterson, 18, who assisted in maintaining control of the hose described the experience as “simply an adrenaline rush.” Because we don’t have a lot of genuine functioning fires, it was really thrilling when we did.
Facebook users who are teenagers who volunteer with the Port Jefferson Fire Department
The fire in the unattached garage on Arlington Avenue was promptly extinguished as a result of the prompt efforts taken by the group. Most significantly, nobody was wounded in all of this.
“They were pleasant and unruffled. There was no one running. Neubert told Newsday that there was no one screaming in the room. Everything was just outstanding in its impressiveness.
The evening before graduation, the students were joking about what they would do in the event that there was a fire in the city when the ceremony was taking place. They never in their wildest dreams imagined that it would really take place.
“They immediately have a great deal more trust because they went, and they handled an issue in a very professional and safe manner,” Neubert said further.
These individuals are going to be regarded in greater esteem the next time we have another emergency similar to that one since they are capable of completing the task.
The majority of the six kids had participated in the junior volunteer program of the fire department when they were 14 years old. Since they became 17, they have been active volunteers in their own right.
Everyone had put in a lot of work, including spending most of their Sundays at the firehouse for training. They spend a portion of their time there, at the Suffolk County Fire Academy in Yaphank, training.
He said, “But you won’t know how someone is going to perform until they really go out there and do it.” “They have my utmost respect and admiration.”
These students indicated that the fact that their graduation did not proceed according to plan did not bother them in the least.
“At the fire, I was able to get more images of myself than I did at the graduation. “But in general, I remember it [as] a wonderful moment, and it was a cool narrative to be able to tell others,” said Parmegiani, who is now 18 years old.
The youngsters have been praised by the Fire Department of Port Jefferson for their bravery and quick thinking.
“Last evening PJFD responded to a garage fire on Arlington Avenue shortly after 7:30,” the department stated on Facebook. “The fire was contained to the garage.”
“Six of the firemen who responded had recently finished their schooling in the Port Jefferson School District and received their diplomas. They rushed to the firehouse even as they were in the middle of snapping photographs with their family so that they could handle the alert.
These young people should be commended for their selfless service and the tremendous effort that they have done.